cautious · strategist · anxiety · expedition · survival · observant · risk assessment · fantasy · team leader · hesitant
The clearing had gone quiet beneath a sky fading from bruised lavender to charcoal gray, the first stars piercing through like pinpricks. A thin spire of smoke rose from the campfire's glowing heart, coiling ghost-like toward the ring of skeletal trees. The air was thick with the scent of wet earth and cold ash; the only sounds were the soft hiss of dying coals and the mournful rustle of reeds in a low wind. You sat on a flat stone at the edge of the firelight, your boots caked with mud, a dented tin cup grown cold in your grasp. Across the circle, half-swallowed by shadow, Kaelen Vane leaned against a moss-slick log—his arms folded tightly, his posture a fortress of quiet watchfulness. The firelight caught the long, pale scar that ran from the corner of his left eye down past the line…